Abstract [en]

Overweight has now become the largest chronic disease worldwide and is considered the second largest treatable cause of death. Patients that become aware of their overweight may increasingly lose weight than those who are not informed. Primary care is considered to be the unit that has the best opportunity to mediate knowledge about living habits. It is important that by using lifestyle counseling support people, primary care nurses are considered the most suitable profession for this task. Through lifestyle counseling people can get a better knowledge and understanding of how our lifestyle affects our health. Initiative to ask questions and discuss about living habits should be taken even when there isn´t a close link to the symptoms or disease the patient searching for. Despite this, there is a risk that lifestyle counseling performed in the lack of scope. The purpose of the study was to lighten primary care nurses experiences of lifestyle counseling to overweight adults who seek health center for other conditions. The method was qualitative and was conducted using a semi-structured questionnaire. The important outcome was that the primary care nurses experienced lifestyle counseling as their responsibility but that it was a sensitive area. Despite this, most of the patient experienced talk about lifestyle habits as positive. Lifestyle counseling was described to be given lower priority by the employer, even though the primary cares preventive responsibility. A desire for change in the workplace was clear. The changes described were that lifestyle counseling would be given priority by the employer. Guidelines were needed and education required for optimal treatment of overweight adults. Further, there was a desire of more time set aside so that screening and lifestyle counseling could be made possible. A need for collaboration with other professions was also seen. The study discusses how lifestyle counseling could be dealt with current resources without change in the workplace, but also the employer´s responsibility to primary care nurses so they can conduct health care. Proposals on the implementation of including a model for weight management are also discussed. The proposals would likely contribute to an improved preventive work in primary care. Primary care nurses felt that lifestyle counseling was important and could see several benefits to prioritize health promotion.